Tag: powerlifting

Time Under Tension Is A Scam

Lately if you follow any “science backed” fitness coach or influencer they’re all saying that time under tension for muscle hypertrophy is outdated and you’re an idiot if you still believe in it.

But is it really fake? No. But, yeah it kind of is. It’s a bit complicated but since no one actually explains anything past their condescending POVs, I’ll do it here.

If you prefer to watch and listen to a video, here is everything in this article in this YouTube video:

Historically Inaccurate

For those unfamiliar, time under tension has long been proposed as the mechanism of muscle growth and hypertrophy. In a nutshell, when you are training for hypertrophy, keeping the muscles under tension for extended periods of time is the main mechanism of stimulating muscle growth. 

The problem with time under tension is that time is the greatest factor being given attention in that equation, but no one has ever really found the critical threshold for how long a set should last for optimal hypertrophy. Even worse, it fails to specify how much tension. Is it time under a little tension? Moderate tension? High tension?

In fact, research keeps finding more and more evidence that keeps putting time under tension under more and more scrutiny.

They’ve found that people can achieve the same significant muscle growth with 5×5, which is nowhere near the traditional range for hypertrophy, just as someone doing like 3×8-12 or even 20 reps, which is more the traditional “bodybuilding” range.

Numerous studies show that you can achieve significant hypertrophy with very low rep sets like 3-5 reps and with very high rep sets like up to 50 reps. They even found that you can achieve about the same level of hypertrophy with 30% of your max as with about 80% of your max. 

So what on earth is going on here? 

Before we break down the research and what it means for time under tension, let’s at least gather up what we know about muscle growth.

The 3 Requirements For Hypertrophy

Muscle hypertrophy generally needs 3 things:

  1. We know that it takes mechanical tension. The greater levels of mechanical tension in the muscle, the greater number of motor units and larger motor units are recruited, which is essential for muscle growth.
  2. We know that it takes effort aka reaching some level of volitional fatigue. In crude terms we need to create some sort of environment of metabolic distress within the muscle to stimulate muscle protein synthesis and the other cascading anabolic events in the body. This also allows for greater recruitment of motor units as fatigue sets in, similar to principle 1. Just a side bar. The metabolic stress theory is also being scrutinized as well, as more evidence emerges to show that metabolic stress may not have as much impact on muscle growth as we once thought but that’s a topic for another day.
  3. We also need some level of training volume. We can’t just do 1 set and call it good. 

So now that we’ve established those three criteria, let’s at least summarize the findings from these studies. I’ll have links to the studies and reviews down the description below if you’re interested in reading them.

The Studies Summarized

Taken as a whole, here are what those studies have found.

  1. You can achieve significant muscle hypertrophy with both low repetitions and high repetitions.
  2. You can achieve significant muscle hypertrophy with a wide range of intensities from 30% of your 1RM to 80% or even higher.
  3. Generally, taking the sets to or close to volitional fatigue aka failure seems to be a prerequisite for any of the rep ranges and intensity ranges to be effective. In fact, while achieving failure is not required or even recommended for strength gains, training at least into the ballpark of failure, around 4 reps in reserve or even less, seems to have a significant positive effect on hypertrophy gains. There are great bits of variability in this data as well as a lot studies having shown that training to failure is not a requirement for muscle growth, but the data does learn towards greater effort = greater gains.
  4. You need to do more than a single set. Yes, that was a finding in one of the studies.
  5. If you are using moderate loads, you don’t need to do as many sets, around 2-3 seemed to be sufficient. If you are using heavier loads, more sets were required to achieve similar levels of hypertrophy. In my little intuitive leap, this is likely due to ensuring that similar volumes and workloads are achieved. However, there was great variability in the data as some studies showed that there was no significant increase in hypertrophy with increasing the number of sets per week while others showed a strong dose response relationship to volume and muscle mass, meaning for every added set, there was an increase in hypertrophy. However, the data does lean towards the idea that there is a ceiling to the number of sets you should do on a practical basis. 

Now, there is a lot more to be learned from these papers so I highly encourage you to go through and read them yourself. 

A lot of that turns a lot of what we theorized about resistance training on its head, including the idea of specific rep ranges only suiting specific goals. You know, 1-5 reps is good for strength, 8-12 is optimal for hypertrophy, and any more than 12 is only for endurance. It’s what every fitness professional learns at some point and it turns out that it doesn’t even scratch the surface. It turns out the hypertrophy rep range might be all rep ranges

And it also seems to put time under tension under great scrutiny. Like I mentioned earlier, time under tension places an emphasis on the TIME aspect of lifting during a set but the plethora of evidence that we just went over shows that it’s way overvalued. In fact, a study by Brad Shoenfeld showed intentionally making the reps extremely slow, as in 10 seconds per rep, was not favorable for hypertrophy. If time under tension was really the primary factor in hypertrophy, very slow training should work, but it doesn’t. 

But let’s not throw out the entire concept.

A New Perspective: Tension Vs Time

A better way to look at this isn’t time under tension.

We can reframe it as tension vs time and it’s an inverse relationship.

We also know that effort is a big factor in hypertrophy training, so we can insert it as

tension vs time = effort

That’s not a real equation I’m not great at math.

So as tension goes up, meaning increased intensity via heavier weights or purposefully creating more tension in the muscle, time as in reps to fatigue will naturally go down. As tension goes down, time or reps to fatigue will naturally go up. 

By the way, even I’m not a huge fan of this equation that I just came up with because it still overemphasizes time. 

Volitional fatigue is important. Absolutely none of this matters if you are taking it easy and stopping your sets far short of fatigue.

Actually, maybe I should write it like,

tension + effort to volitional fatigue = hypertrophy

The important thing here is effort and taking the sets closer to failure, but even then this isn’t a perfect relationship because as we approach the extremes of this relationship, we run into some issues.

For example, I’ve never really heard of anyone gaining a ton of muscle using sets of 1 or 2 reps with extremely heavy weights despite what we learned today, nor do I really hear of anyone gaining a ton of muscle using really light weights like 15% of your 1RM. And beyond that there’s the practical problems like burning out with a prolonged program of extremely heavy and high volume training, potential joint problems from excessively heavy training, and on the other end of the spectrum, your workouts will last forever if you’re only doing sets of 50 or more. 

So in real life, it will probably always come back to moderate parameters.

So let’s take a moment to recap some of the lessons learned here and have some practical takeaways to apply to your own training. 

Top Scientific and Practical Takeaways

  1. You can achieve muscular hypertrophy with a wide range of intensities and rep ranges.
  2. No matter which level of intensity or rep range you choose, effort and taking each set close to volitional fatigue or close to failure seems to be favorable.
  3. Time under tension has historically overemphasized the importance of TIME. 
  4. Time or reps to fatigue has an inverse relationship to the amount of tension used, meaning high levels of tension will require less time to fatigue while lower levels of tension will require more time to fatigue. In any case, training close to failure, about 4 reps or less in reserve, is favorable for either situation.
  5. You cannot escape the laws and requirements of muscle hypertrophy, which are mechanical tension, effort to fatigue, and volume.
  6. As far as total volume goes, it seems like you can get away with doing about 3-4 sets of an exercise per workout and achieve good gains. But, there is data to show that doing more sets total per week has a benefit for hypertrophy.

So how do we transform this into something actionable for our own training?

  1. First of all, it means that we can insert more variation into our training without fear of losing out on potential hypertrophy gains. 
  2. Second, you can start tailoring your rep ranges to each exercise depending on what typically feels good and makes logical sense for the kind of exercise you are doing.

    So here is the way I organize my workouts and rep ranges. Side note, I usually do an upper body/ lower body split.

    For your main, big compound lifts like the squat, bench, deadlift, and overhead press, focus on doing sets around the 3 to 6 or even maybe up to the 8 rep range. 4-6 sets will compliment these rep ranges well.

    For your assistance lifts which may still be compound lifts but typically “smaller” exercises like lat pull downs, dips, rows, dumbbell variations, split squats, RDLs, etc, work around the 5-8 or 5-12 rep range. 3-4 sets for each of these exercises will likely work well.

    For the smaller accessory exercises like bicep curls, tricep extensions, knee extensions, hamstring curls, lateral raises, etc, exercises that are typically a bit cumbersome to load incredibly heavily and maintain good technique, perform your sets at higher rep ranges like around 8-15 reps. 2-3 sets here will likely work really well. Now, that doesn’t seem like much but considering that these smaller accessory exercises are typically performed after the main lifts and assistance exercises towards the end of the workout, 2-3 sets should feel sufficient. 

    In all of these ranges, remember that you need to put in effort and take each set to relative fatigue. 
  3. And finally third, As far as rep tempo goes, we know that you don’t need to purposely make each rep take longer for better gains. However, a sensible way to standardize your reps and ensure you are creating adequate mechanical tension and taking advantage of what both eccentric and concentric contraction have to offer, a sensible approach is to control the eccentric portion of the lift through like a 1 or 2 count, and lift through the concentric portion as quickly and as powerfully as possible without breaking technique. 

So I hope that you found this article helpful or at least thought provoking in some way. Time under tension has been a long standing concept but as new information comes out, the intelligent thing to do as movement professionals is to learn from it and apply it to our own practice or training. 

Let me know what you think and if you have any questions, put them down below.

Further Reading:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6950543/#:~:text=High%2Dload%20RT%20with%20additional,the%20limb%20muscles%20%5B43%5D.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7927075/

https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/sports-and-active-living/articles/10.3389/fspor.2022.949021/full

https://elementssystem.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Schoenfeld-17-altas-bajas.pdf

https://journals.lww.com/nsca-jscr/fulltext/2022/03000/progressive_resistance_training_volume__effects_on.2.aspx

https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/57/18/1211

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2095254621000077

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7725035/

I’m Squatting Every Workout For 100 Days | The Program

Getting better at anything usually requires you to do more of the thing. I wanted to test out this theory and see how many pounds I can add to my squat if I squatted every training session for 100 days.

To be clear, I’m not squatting everyday for 100 days. I’m squatting every time I train, which is typically 3 or 4 days per week depending on the program.

Getting strong typically requires 3 things:

  • Increasing absolute strength/skill via circa-max training (max effort training).
  • Improving speed-strength and power (dynamic effort training).
  • Appropriate training volume (hypertrophy training).

These elements are usually periodized and divided into distinct training phases (ie, having a volume phase, power phase, and strength phase), but I have never been a believer that different elements of fitness need to be separated. Each of these elements will be trained each week.

Because of the high frequency of training the squat, volume will typically be conservative, even during hypertrophy days to prevent premature burnout.

Will something like this actually work? We shall see, but as of yesterday, I started week 7 and 95% of my max moved like it was 80%. I’m only halfway through the program and haven’t even fully realized all of the gains.

On weeks that have 3 training days, I recommend training on Monday, Wednesday, Friday.

On weeks that have 4 training days, I recommend training Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday OR Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, Friday.

Do NOT exceed the stated training intensities or volumes. Upper body work such as bench pressing and overhead pressing is addressed twice a week with limited volume designed to maintain upper body strength. Remember that when we add intensity and volume in one area of our training, we MUST decrease it from somewhere else.

Let’s dive in.

Week 1:

3 training days

Day 1 max effort

  1. Squat: 2×3-5 @70%, 3×1-3 @80%
  2. Low back/posterior chain: 5×5-8
  3. Quads: 3×5-8
  4. Abs: 2×5-10

Day 2 volume, upper body

  1. Squat: 3×5-8 @60%
  2. Low back/posterior chain: 3×5-8
  3. Bench press: 3×4-6
  4. Upper back: 3×5-8
  5. Lats: 2×5-8

Day 3 dynamic effort, mix

  1. Squat: 6×3 @70%
  2. Low back/posterior chain: 3×5-8
  3. Hamstrings: 2×5-8
  4. Press: 3×4-6
  5. Row: 3×5-8

Week 2:

4 training days

Day 1 max effort

  1. Squat: 2×3-5 @75%, 3×1-3 @85%
  2. Low back/posterior chain: 5×5-8
  3. Quads: 3×5-8
  4. Abs (optional): 2×5-10

Day 2 volume, upper body

  1. Squat: 3×5-8 @65%
  2. Low back/posterior chain: 3×5-8
  3. Bench press: 3×4-6
  4. Upper back: 3×5-8
  5. Lats: 2×5-8

Day 3 dynamic effort

  1. Jump variation: 5×3
  2. Squat: 6×3 @75%
  3. Low back/posterior chain: 3×5-8
  4. Unilateral variation: 2×5-8

Day 4 mix

  1. Squat variation: 3×3 @~65%
  2. Hamstrings: 3×5-8
  3. Press: 3×4-6
  4. Row: 3×5-8

Week 3:

3 training days

Day 1 max effort

  1. Squat: 2×3-5 @80%, 2×1-3 @90%
  2. Low back/posterior chain: 5×5-8
  3. Quads: 3×5-8
  4. Abs: 2×5-10

Day 2 volume, upper body

  1. Squat: 3×5-8 @70%
  2. Low back/posterior chain: 3×5-8
  3. Bench press: 2×4-6
  4. Upper back: 3×5-8
  5. Lats: 2×5-8

Day 3 dynamic effort, mix

  1. Squat: 6×3 @80%
  2. Low back/posterior chain: 3×5-8
  3. Hamstrings: 2×5-8
  4. Press: 2×4-6
  5. Row: 3×5-8

Week 4: deload

3 training days

Day 1 max effort

  1. Squat: 3×3-5 @70%
  2. Low back/posterior chain: 3×5-8
  3. Quads: 3×5-8

Day 2 volume, upper body

  1. Squat variation: 3×5 @50%
  2. Low back/posterior chain: 3×5-8
  3. Bench press: 2×4-6
  4. Upper back: 3×5-8
  5. Lats: 2×5-8

Day 3 dynamic effort, mix

  1. Squat: 6×3 @60%
  2. Low back/posterior chain: 3×5-8
  3. Hamstrings: 2×5-8
  4. Press: 2×4-6
  5. Row: 3×5-8

Week 5:

3 training days

Day 1 max effort

  1. Squat: 2×3-5 @77%, 3×1-3 @87%
  2. Low back/posterior chain: 5×5-8
  3. Quads: 3×5-8
  4. Abs: 2×5-10

Day 2 volume, upper body

  1. Squat: 3×5-8 @65%
  2. Low back/posterior chain: 3×5-8
  3. Bench press: 3×4-6
  4. Upper back: 3×5-8
  5. Lats: 2×5-8

Day 3 dynamic effort, mix

  1. Jump: 5×2
  2. Squat: 6×3 @70%
  3. Low back/posterior chain: 3×5-8
  4. Hamstrings: 2×5-8
  5. Press: 3×4-6
  6. Row: 3×5-8

Week 6:

4 training days

Day 1 max effort

  1. Squat: 2×3-5 @82%, 3×1-3 @92%
  2. Low back/posterior chain: 5×5-8
  3. Quads: 3×5-8
  4. Abs (optional): 2×5-10

Day 2 volume, upper body

  1. Squat: 3×5-8 @70%
  2. Low back/posterior chain: 3×5-8
  3. Bench press: 3×4-6
  4. Upper back: 3×5-8
  5. Lats: 2×5-8

Day 3 dynamic effort

  1. Jump variation: 5×3
  2. Squat: 6×3 @75%
  3. Low back/posterior chain: 3×5-8
  4. Unilateral variation: 2×5-8

Day 4 mix

  1. Squat variation: 3×3 @~68%
  2. Hamstrings: 2×5-8
  3. Press: 3×4-6
  4. Row: 3×5-8

Week 7:

3 training days

Day 1 max effort

  1. Squat: 2×3-5 @87%, 2×1-3 @95%
  2. Low back/posterior chain: 5×5-8
  3. Quads: 3×5-8
  4. Abs: 2×5-10

Day 2 volume, upper body

  1. Squat: 3×4-6 @75%
  2. Low back/posterior chain: 3×5-8
  3. Bench press: 2×4-6
  4. Upper back: 3×5-8
  5. Lats: 2×5-8

Day 3 dynamic effort, mix

  1. Squat: 6×3 @80%
  2. Low back/posterior chain: 3×5-8
  3. Hamstrings: 2×5-8
  4. Press: 2×4-6
  5. Row: 3×5-8

Week 8: deload

3 training days

Day 1 max effort

  1. Squat: 3×3-5 @70%
  2. Low back/posterior chain: 3×5-8
  3. Quads: 3×5-8

Day 2 volume, upper body

  1. Squat variation: 3×5 @50%
  2. Low back/posterior chain: 3×5-8
  3. Bench press: 2×4-6
  4. Upper back: 3×5-8
  5. Lats: 2×5-8

Day 3 dynamic effort, mix

  1. Squat: 6×3 @60%
  2. Low back/posterior chain: 3×5-8
  3. Hamstrings: 2×5-8
  4. Press: 2×4-6
  5. Row: 3×5-8

Week 9:

3 training days

Day 1 max effort

  1. Squat: 2×3-5 @85%, 3×1-3 @90%
  2. Low back/posterior chain: 5×5-8
  3. Quads: 3×5-8
  4. Abs: 2×5-10

Day 2 volume, upper body

  1. Squat: 3×4-8 @68%
  2. Low back/posterior chain: 3×5-8
  3. Bench press: 3×4-6
  4. Upper back: 3×5-8
  5. Lats: 2×5-8

Day 3 dynamic effort, mix

  1. Jump: 5×2
  2. Squat: 6×3 @70%
  3. Low back/posterior chain: 3×5-8
  4. Hamstrings: 2×5-8
  5. Press: 3×4-6
  6. Row: 3×5-8

Week 10:

4 training days

Day 1 max effort

  1. Squat: 2×2-5 @88%, 2×1-3 @93-100%
  2. Low back/posterior chain: 5×5-8
  3. Quads: 3×5-8
  4. Abs (optional): 2×5-10

Day 2 volume, upper body

  1. Squat: 3×4-8 @72%
  2. Low back/posterior chain: 3×5-8
  3. Bench press: 2×4-6
  4. Upper back: 3×5-8
  5. Lats: 2×5-8

Day 3 dynamic effort

  1. Jump variation: 5×3
  2. Squat: 6×3 @75%
  3. Low back/posterior chain: 3×5-8
  4. Unilateral variation: 2×5-8

Day 4 mix

  1. Squat variation: 2-3×3 @~72%
  2. Hamstrings: 2×5-8
  3. Press: 2×4-6
  4. Row: 2×5-8

Week 11:

3 training days

Day 1 max effort

  1. Squat: 2×2-3 @90%, 2×1-3 @90-105%
  2. Low back/posterior chain: 3×5-8
  3. Quads: 2×5-8

Day 2 volume, upper body

  1. Squat: 3×3-6 @75%
  2. Low back/posterior chain: 3×5-8
  3. Bench press: 2×4-6
  4. Upper back: 3×5-8

Day 3 dynamic effort, mix

  1. Squat: 6×3 @80%
  2. Low back/posterior chain: 3×5-8
  3. Hamstrings: 2×5-8
  4. Press: 2×4-6
  5. Row: 3×5-8

Week 12: deload

3 training days

Day 1 max effort

  1. Squat: 3×3-5 @70%
  2. Low back/posterior chain: 3×5-8

Day 2 volume, upper body

  1. Squat variation: 3×5 @50%
  2. Low back/posterior chain: 3×5-8
  3. Bench press: 2×4-6
  4. Upper back: 3×5-8

Day 3 dynamic effort, mix

  1. Squat: 6×3 @60%
  2. Hamstrings: 2×5-8
  3. Press: 2×4-6
  4. Row: 3×5-8

Week 13: Realization

Day 1 max effort

  1. Squat: 2×2-5 @85%, 2×1-3 @90-105%
  2. Low back/posterior chain: 3×5-8
  3. Quads: 3×5-8

Day 2 volume, upper body

  1. Squat: 3×4-6 @75%
  2. Low back/posterior chain: 3×5-8
  3. Bench press: 2×4-6
  4. Upper back: 2×5-8

Day 3 dynamic effort, mix

  1. Squat: 5×3 @70%
  2. Low back/posterior chain: 3×5-8
  3. Hamstrings: 2×5-8
  4. Press: 2×4-6
  5. Row: 2×5-8

Week 14: Prep

Day 1 max effort

  1. Squat: 3×1-3 85%-95%
  2. Low back/posterior chain: 3×5-8
  3. Quads: 2×5-8

Day 2 volume

  1. Squat: 3×3-5 @80-90%
  2. Low back/posterior chain: 3×5-8
  3. Upper back: 3×5-8

Day 3 

  1. Squat: 4×2-3 @85%
  2. Low back/posterior chain: 3×5-8
  3. Hamstrings: 2×5-8

Week 15: Testing

Day 1: Testing

  1. Squat: Work up to 1RM
  2. Bench Press: Work up to 1RM
  3. Deadlift: Work up to 1RM

Minimalism in Fitness: Do Less to Do More

I don’t know when it became the norm to do dozens of exercises each time you go to the gym. Back day has you doing 6 different variations of rows, leg day has you doing 8 kinds of lunges… What on earth is the point? Let’s take a moment to learn from minimalism. You don’t need to do that many different exercises.

You should only need 1-2 exercises per muscle group/plane of movement per workout.

“But that’s not enough! How am I going to get enough volume??”

It’s simple. You do more volume.

More sets, fewer exercises

Most people I know don’t necessarily want to do more. They don’t want thousands of exercises to sift through. They want to be shown a few things that will push them towards their goals.

Don’t get me wrong. Variation is good, but too much variation will derail progress and soften the focus of your training.

All of the evidence shows that total exercise volume is one of the most important factors for strength and muscle hypertrophy. This doesn’t mean you need to do dozens of different exercises and variations. Different studies will show that anything between 10 sets to 52 sets per muscle group per week will result in strength and hypertrophy gains. We will be aiming for the middle of that, around 10-20 sets per week per muscle group.

Taking the minimalist approach, you can just increase the number of sets per exercise. Focus on performing 1-2 big, compound movements per muscle group. For example, a great exercise for the upper back and lats is the seated cable row. Do 5-10 sets of 5-10 reps at a relatively heavy weight, control the tempo of each set, and see how pumped your back feels. You won’t be needing 5 more exercises for your lats and back.

Sample back/shoulders workout

Using this approach for a back and shoulders day, we can get a very well rounded workout.

  1. Overhead Press: 6 sets x 5-8 reps
  2. Seated Cable Row: 8 sets x 5-10 reps
  3. Parallel Grip Pull Up: 6 sets x 5-10 reps
  4. Dumbbell Lateral Raise: 5 sets 8-12 reps

My arms are shaking just typing out that workout. That gives you more than 10 sets per muscle group.

If you are the type to deadlift on back and shoulder day (even though it will fit better on a leg day or low back, glute, and hamstring day) here is how it can look like.

  1. Deadlift: 5 sets x 5 reps
  2. Dumbbell Overhead Press: 6 sets x 5-8 reps
  3. Seated Cable Row: 8 sets x 5-10 reps
  4. Parallel Grip Pull Up: 6 sets x 5-10 reps

If you do a chest/shoulders/arm day sometime later in the week, you can hit the shoulders a second time to supplement more volume with lateral raises.

Sample chest/arms/shoulders workout

Here is a sample chest/arms/shoulders workout.

  1. Bench Press: 5-8 sets x 5-8 reps
  2. Parallel Bar Dips: 5 sets x 5-10 reps
  3. Lateral Raise: 5 sets x 8-12 reps
  4. EZ Bar Curl: 5 sets x 8-12 reps

Note that I did a double whammy with the dips hitting the chest and triceps at the same time. If you are worried about the biceps not having enough weekly volume, keep in mind the biceps are heavily involved in rows and pull ups from the back workout.

Sample leg day workout

Bodybuilder performing back squat exercise.

I usually split my leg days into 2 different workouts with one squat focused and one deadlift focused. Normally I perform about 5-6 exercises, but for the sake of taking the minimalist approach, we’re going to whittle that down.

  1. Barbell Back Squat: 5 sets x 5-8 reps
  2. Romanian Deadlift: 5 sets x 5-10 reps
  3. Dumbbell Bulgarian Split Squat: 6 sets 5-10 reps

The deadlift focused workout performed later in the week will look like this:

  1. Deadlift: 5 sets x 5 reps
  2. Leg press: 6-8 sets x 5-10 reps
  3. Good morning: 5 sets x 5-10 reps

The total sets for the quads is anywhere between 17-19 sets. The posterior chain will have about 15 focused sets but keep in mind the posterior chain is still working hard during normal squats.

Technical benefits of doing less

Most people shouldn’t be doing so many variations of exercises. Each exercise has its own technical challenges and it is impossible to get proficient at any exercise if you are doing too many.

When you cut down the total number of exercises that you are performing, you get a chance to hone in your technique on a few select exercises. When you are trying to learn a new skill, excessive variation will kill progress. Focusing on 1-2 variations at time will yield much greater gains in technical ability.

Do less to do more

One of the big lessons of minimalism is to have fewer things going on in your life so you don’t need to make so many decisions. By forcing yourself to pick just one or two exercises per muscle group, you spare yourself the headache of sifting through and choosing numerous exercises.

Plus, by doing fewer things, you can focus more of your time and energy on those few things. Instead of splitting your attention amongst 5 different exercises for your lats, you can focus on giving 100% of your effort on 1 or 2.

So as the cliche goes, less is more.

I just cringed at myself for saying that.

Further Reading

Schoenfeld BJ, Ogborn D, Krieger JW. Dose-response relationship between weekly resistance training volume and increases in muscle mass: A systematic review and meta-analysis. J Sports Sci. 2017;35(11):1073-1082. doi:10.1080/02640414.2016.1210197

ENES, ALYSSON1; DE SOUZA, EDUARDO O.2; SOUZA-JUNIOR, TÁCITO P.1. Effects of Different Weekly Set Progressions on Muscular Adaptations in Trained Males: Is There a Dose–Response Effect?. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise 56(3):p 553-563, March 2024. | DOI: 10.1249/MSS.0000000000003317

Baz-Valle E, Balsalobre-Fernández C, Alix-Fages C, Santos-Concejero J. A Systematic Review of The Effects of Different Resistance Training Volumes on Muscle Hypertrophy. J Hum Kinet. 2022;81:199-210. Published 2022 Feb 10. doi:10.2478/hukin-2022-0017

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8884877/

I Forbid You To Max Out During Every Workout

My wife and I often let friends and budding gym goers lift with us. I don’t mind. I enjoy having a good community of lifters and I love teaching others about lifting. One friend got into lifting about a year ago and loves it. He is still a relative novice but you can’t beat his enthusiasm.

He tends to come over on leg days. He’s obsessed with the squat.

“I hit 295 on the squat a two days ago. I’m going to try and hit that again today,” he said.

Continue reading “I Forbid You To Max Out During Every Workout”

Weekly Roundup: The Best Articles On Strength and Fitness

Here are the top 10 research articles, blog posts, or books on strength and fitness that I’ve found value in recently. (All links open in a new tab).

  1. Men’s Health: Research Has Unveiled How Many Sets You Need to Do to Build Muscle
  2. Tony Gentilcore: “DEADLIFTS ARE ONE OF THE WORST THINGS YOU CAN DO FOR YOUR SPINE” (not actually. Read the article)
  3. The Muscle PhD: Are Deadlifts Dangerous?
  4. Journal of Human Kinetics: A Systematic Review of The Effects of Different Resistance Training Volumes on Muscle Hypertrophy
  5. Frontiers in Physiology: Comparing Time Efficiency of Sprint vs. High-Intensity Interval Training in Reducing Abdominal Visceral Fat in Obese Young Women: A Randomized, Controlled Trial
  6. Mike Reinold: Ultimate Guide to Blood Flow Restriction Training
  7. Eric Cressey: So You Can’t Squat?
  8. Juggernaut Training Systems: 5 Common Mistakes in the Bench Press
  9. Nerd Fitness: Strength Training For Women: 7 Things You Should Know First!
  10. Born Fitness: Sentenced To Life

If you have any blogs or articles you enjoy reading, please let me know in the comments! Let’s gather some good information!

3 New Ways to Progressive Overload

Progressive overload is the foundational basis of strength training. It means that you need to gradually increase the intensity of your training over time. Essentially, make sure that you’re doing more now than you did in the past.

The most common strategy to achieve progressive overload is to increase the weight that you are lifting by a few pounds. The problem is that most advice ends there. If it was that simple, the world will be filled with 1000 pound squatters and 500 pound bench pressers.

Simply adding weight to the bar is a finite strategy. Since we tend to grow muscle and increase strength at a relatively slow rate, just adding weight to the bar will cause us to progress too quickly and hit a plateau.

We must expand our strategies to achieve progressive overload. Here are 3 ways to progressively overload your training that does not involve adding weight.

1. Increase training volume

Training volume is essentially the total amount of work you are doing. While there are multiple ways to determine training volume, it is often calculated by looking at the total number of sets and reps you are performing.

For example, if you are doing 5 sets of 5 reps of a particular exercise (5×5), your total volume will be 25 reps.

If you wanted to calculate the total work of a particular exercise, you will determine how many times you are lifting a particular weight. This is often unnecessary but provides insight about the intensities that are being achieved with certain exercises.

For example, if you lift 200 pounds on the squat for 5×5, you will calculate 5x5x200. This is 5000 pounds of total work.

Increasing your total training volume or work performed is one of the best ways to achieve progressive overload. Simply adding a rep to each set will drastically increase training volume.

In our first example, if you did one extra rep per set, your training volume will be 5×6=30 total reps.

In the second example, your total work will be 200x5x6=6000 pounds of total work.

To implement this strategy, aim to increase your reps per set by one rep for a few weeks. Depending on the set/rep scheme, you may need to climb up to 8 or 10 reps per set. Once you can do the prescribed number of reps for all sets, then you will add some weight to the bar and begin the progression all over again.

Remember that adding weight isn’t the only way to become stronger. Doing more total work is more important. The added benefit is this will force you to slow down your progress to prevent hitting plateaus.

2. Increase training density

Training density is how much time it takes to perform a certain amount of work.

Imagine your typical leg workout session. How long does it take to perform? 45 minutes? 60 minutes? Now imagine if you deliberately took 3 hours to perform the same exact workout. No extra sets or exercises. How easy would that be? This is very LOW training density. Same workout, just performed over a very long period of time.

Now take the same exact workout and imagine trying to do it 10 minutes faster than before. You will be hustling and probably straining hard to get through all of the work. This is an example of HIGH training density.

If you are able to perform the same amount of work in less time, something about your fitness has to have improved.

Of course, this is another finite strategy to implement before it becomes impractical and possibly dangerous, but the point is to perform your training at a challenging pace.

3. Increase tension and improve technique

One of the critical principles of strength training is something called time under tension. It is essentially the total amount of time that a muscle is activated and creating tension. Muscle growth and strength is a direct consequence of time under tension. In general, longer bouts of time under tension tend to yield greater gains in muscle and strength (although this is a great generalization).

One overlooked part of time under tension is the amount of tension being produced. Lifting a heavier weight will naturally cause a muscle to create more tension. However, we can deliberately create more tension during an exercise by consciously tightening the working and stabilizing muscles.

Imagine performing a biceps curl with 20 pound dumbbells. Imagine casually curling them up and trying to expend as little energy on the movement as possible.

Now imagine curling the same 20 pound dumbbell but now brace your abs, squeeze your glutes, and stand tall. Pull your shoulders back. Grip the weights as hard as you can. Slow down the movement and try and actively flex the muscles harder as you lift the weights. In essence, try and make 20 pounds feel as difficult as possible.

This is a technique often employed by bodybuilders to maximize the amount of tension they are creating during any given exercise. Usually when we do this, we need to use impeccable technique to properly control the weights.

When we are intensionally increasing the amount of tension and improving technique, we naturally work harder during the exercise. This is another variation of progressive overload.

Expanding your toolkit

Never rely on just a single parameter to force progressive overload. The three strategies discussed here are simple to implement during every workout.

The pursuit of strength is a long journey. Slow but consistent progress is always favorable to rapid and unsustainable progress. Just focus on doing a little more each time you go into the gym.

Less Is More: Applying Minimalism to Fitness

I love minimalism. Less is more. Have less stuff. Embrace simplicity. So how do minimalists approach fitness?

Some people don’t want to think too hard about things. They want to get as much out of as little as possible, and I admire that. Work smarter, not harder. In fitness, there are some things that will yield greater results than others.

Let’s apply some lessons from minimalism to fitness. Here are 3 strategies to approach fitness as a minimalist.

Audit every exercise in your workout

Your body has a limited amount of resources to perform and recover from a workout. This is the basis of training economy. It bodes well to spend your time and energy intelligently.

The first thing you need to do is to establish some goals of your training. What are you trying to achieve with your program? Once you establish your goal, make sure that everything you do while you’re in the gym serves that goal and get rid of everything that doesn’t.

For example, if you are trying to increase your max squat, everything you do during a squat, lower body, or leg workout should somehow support your goal. Ask yourself if each of the exercises you do serves the goal of increasing your squat.

Will jumping and doing power exercises improve your squat? Yes. This stays.

Will squatting improve your squat? Yes, of course. This stays.

Will having a stronger posterior chain (low back, glutes, hamstrings) improve your squat? Yes. RDLs, back raises, good mornings, hip thrusts, glute ham raises, etc all stay.

Will having stronger quads improve the squat? Yes. Bulgarian split squats, lunges, step ups, etc all stay.

Will doing 20 sets of calf raises improve your squat? Probably not. Get rid of it. Plus, isolation work for the calf only improves aesthetics and not performance (unless it’s for rehab purposes).

Will doing those awkward glute kick backs in a leotard with 2 pound ankle weights while climbing up a stair master improve your squat? Nope. Get rid of it. But make sure you do it for the ‘Gram.

When you start auditing your training methods in this way, it’s easy to cut out a ton of useless fluff. Only the important things will remain.

Use the minimum effective dose

Louie Simmons always said it best. You don’t train minimally. You don’t train maximally. You train optimally.

May he lift in peace.

You should not be using absolute maximal intensities every training session. This will lead to burnout, overtraining, injuries, and just isn’t strategic and optimal.

The minimum effective dose is the least amount of exercise that is required to elicit a training effect. Any amount of stimulus under this will not elicit an adaptation or training effect. Any amount of stimulus past this may or may not elicit a greater training effect. There will be a point of diminishing returns for increasing your given intensity past the minimum effective dose.

All of this to say: don’t progress too quickly. If you’re squatting 225 for sets today, do 230 or 235 next time. Don’t make unnecessarily large jumps. Get as much out of 225, 230, and 235 as you can. You’ll be regretting that you didn’t when you inevitably hit a wall in a few weeks.

Many coaches will advocate for a slow but steady progression over the long term. This will not only help to minimize plateaus but ensure that you are getting the most out of any given combination of weight, sets, and reps.

Eliminate supplements and focus on eating real food

I’ve said this many times and I’ll say it again: Supplements don’t do jack s*** if you don’t have your basic nutrition dialed in.

Trying to make up for a bad diet with supplements is like using duct tape to save a sinking ship (Unless it’s that flex tape stuff. That stuff is magic).

Supplements should be accounting for less than 5% of your total progress coming from your diet. The other 95% comes from an educated approach to nutrition. Real food will always be superior to supplements, so put forth your effort into the items that are going to yield the majority of results and stop worrying about the rest. The supplement industry is honestly way too big for what it actually offers.

Let me repeat a sentence to make sure I made my point. Real food will ALWAYS be superior to supplements!

If you are adamant about having some supplements to either supplement your nutrition or to have a pre-training ritual, look into creatine, vitamin D, EPA/DHA, and good quality protein. The only supplement companies I really buy from these days are Thorne and Boba Tea Protein. Both companies are incredible.

Go forth and approach your fitness like a minimalist

Minimalism is all about cutting out the unnecessary fluff from your life. When you apply the three of these strategies, you are eliminating unnecessary exercises, volume, and supplements from your fitness journey. When you have less to distract you, you will be able to put forth your energy and effort into the things that truly yield the greatest results.

So here’s my permission for you to do less to get more.

1 Exercise That Will Bulletproof Your Hamstrings

The best way to treat a hamstring injury is to prevent it from happening. Once they happen, they become a real b**ch to rehabilitate. The best way to prevent injury is to make the muscle as strong as possible but adequately loading the hamstrings can be cumbersome and challenging if you don’t have regular access to a gym. This is where Nordic Hamstring Curls save the day. By their nature, they’re tremendously difficult and require no equipment.

Study after study has shown the value of Nordic hamstring curls in decreasing injury to the hamstrings.

This is exercise is so good that it’s consistently been shown to decrease the incidence of hamstring and knee injuries in populations particularly vulnerable to these by half. That is a hugely significant amount!

The Nordic Hamstring Exercise/Curl

The exercise is predominantly an eccentric muscle contraction, which is where most muscle damage and overload takes place.

You will need a partner or a solid place to wedge your foot.

Set up the exercise by kneeling on both knees. Your hips and torso will be upright. Your partner is going to hold down your feet with their hands on the back of your ankles/heels. Your partner should have their shoulders over your feet to make sure enough weight is applied.

Initiate the exercise by slowly lowering yourself to the floor by using your hamstrings. Try to approach the floor as slowly as possible. You will use your hands like a push up to absorb the impact at the floor. You can return to the starting position by either resetting the exercise or doing an explosive push up to hamstring curl your way back up.

Perform 3-5 sets of 5-10 repetitions.

Conclusions

Taking clues from weightlifting and sports medicine, they best way to make a muscle resilient and resistant to injury is to make it as strong as you can and train it with the greatest amount of tension as possible. Then you replicate game time scenarios with various drills.

The studies that showed the value of Nordic hamstring curls used the exercise in isolation with no other exercise program, but of course including the Nordic hamstring curl in a fully comprehensive program is the most optimal approach. However, if you for some reason had to choose just one exercise to do, this is it.

Further Reading

Vianna KB, Rodrigues LG, Oliveira NT, Ribeiro-Alvares JB, Baroni BM. A Preseason Training Program With the Nordic Hamstring Exercise Increases Eccentric Knee Flexor Strength and Fascicle Length in Professional Female Soccer Players. Int J Sports Phys Ther. 2021;16(2):459-467. Published 2021 Apr 1. doi:10.26603/001c.19452

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8016438/#:~:text=This%20is%20the%20first%20study,the%20BFLH%20fascicle%20length.

van Dyk N, Behan FP, Whiteley R. Including the Nordic hamstring exercise in injury prevention programmes halves the rate of hamstring injuries: a systematic review and meta-analysis of 8459 athletes. Br J Sports Med. 2019;53(21):1362-1370. doi:10.1136/bjsports-2018-100045

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30808663/

Cuthbert M, Ripley N, McMahon JJ, Evans M, Haff GG, Comfort P. The Effect of Nordic Hamstring Exercise Intervention Volume on Eccentric Strength and Muscle Architecture Adaptations: A Systematic Review and Meta-analyses [published correction appears in Sports Med. 2019 Nov 7;:]. Sports Med. 2020;50(1):83-99. doi:10.1007/s40279-019-01178-7

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6942028/

Compare Yourself To Who You Were Yesterday and No One Else

It’s easy to fall victim to comparison. In a world governed by metrics, everyone will compare themselves to someone else at the gym. It’s easy to let the negativity derail your motivation. No matter how strong, fit, and competent you become, there will always be someone with a bigger bench, bigger squat, and better body composition. There will always be someone bigger, fitter, faster, and stronger.

So why bother?

First of all, if you fall into this nihilistic belief, you started this whole journey for the wrong reason. Unless you’re a competitive athlete, the whole point is to improve yourself and your health, not to outdo others in comparison.

Comparison is truly the killer of happiness, and it’s especially apparent in the world of health and fitness. Someone will always have larger pecs or a better looking ass than you but who cares? Don’t let that get to you. The whole purpose of the fitness and strength journey is self-betterment.

The only person to whom you should be comparing yourself is who you were yesterday.

That’s it. Don’t mind the people who’ve been training for years longer than you or the dude who seems to get strong and jacked no matter what kind of jackassery he does. What matters is if you are progressing forward and learning along the way.

When the sole purpose of training is to be better than others, the pursuit becomes a pathetic and egotistical race on a rat wheel. It’s sad how small their world is. No one gives a shit about these dudes except for themselves, so don’t become one of them.

Let me ask you this.

If you do one thing each day to improve yourself, where will you be next week? Next month? In a year? In 5 years? Each milestone you cross is a victory to be celebrated in the context of your personal life. If you finally squat 100 pounds for the first time, that is a great personal achievement!

The victories of others don’t diminish your own. I am always more impressed by individuals who consistently outdo their previous bests, no matter how small, than the strong and arrogant showboats who become complacent in their training.

Don’t compare yourself to others. Are you growing? Growth is the most important victory in the gym and in life.

The chaos of your life is already enough without having to deal with the arbitrary standards set by other people’s accomplishments. Compare yourself to who you were yesterday, not to who someone else is today.

The Best Workout Split Used By Most Athletes

Workout splits are essentially how you divide and organize a strength training program. What are you going to do each time you go to the gym? How often are you training each muscle group? What’s the best workout split?

There is a lot to consider.

There are an endless number of workout splits from bodybuilding-style splits that emphasize a specific muscle group per day to those that emphasize movements such as push, pull, squat, and hinge. Trainers and coaches will swear by one while slandering others.

Each split has its merits and advantages but there is anything you take from this post, it’s to just stick with one for long enough to make progress instead of hopping from one program to the next every week.

But let’s get to the one favored by athletes.

Continue reading “The Best Workout Split Used By Most Athletes”
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